Athletics owner John Fisher announces the A’s will have a “Las Vegas” logo on players uniforms during a press conference announcing a marketing partnership with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority at the Las Vegas Convention Center Friday, March 7, 2025. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Why is the A’s owner hated?

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

We have all heard this phrase: “The customer is always right”, emphasizing the importance of customer satisfaction and prioritizing their needs. Many fans believe that A’s owner John Fisher has unfairly blamed the fans for the team’s struggles, thereby fostering considerable animosity. Baseball is a business; the A’s product is baseball, and the fans who attend the games and purchase their merchandise are the customers.

The A’s fans are correct to have certain expectations about the team; they pay to see the team play, and they expect to have a cohesive plan by management that, after a few years, you can finally have a team that performs well enough to be a competitive team, maybe worthy of a playoff birth, but not this season, as they looked like they will finish last, this would be the third time in the last five years they finish in last place.

While the phrase “the customer is always right” originated in the retail sector, it’s widely applied to various industries to encourage businesses to focus on meeting customer expectations. In September 2024, Mr. Fisher apologized for the team’s departure from Oakland in a letter addressed to fans. This letter was appropriately issued one day before the A’s open their final home series in Oakland, where they spent 57 years. That letter was not a hit with the fans; actually, it was more of a strikeout, with many fans believing it was an insult.

During the games in Oakland, after completing my preparation for the broadcast, which includes gathering statistics, reviewing starting lineups, and conducting interviews, I walk from the broadcast booth down to the seats and start conversations with fans.

The anger toward Mr. Fisher was evident to me from many fans during the last home stand in Athletics history at Oakland, September 2024.  I have spoken to A’s fans through the years at the park before games, and I would be conservative to say that 98% have shown great displeasure and animosity for the A’s departing Oakland and their desire for the owner to SELL.

From those who told me “How can we build a winning team, when he trades the good players, because he didn’t want to pay them,” to others who told me “he doesn’t care for Oakland, so Oakland should not care for him”. Other comments, I heard, would not be prudent for me to write here; let me say, it is the type of language you can see every day on social media. Where the “F word”is commonly used, before the owner’s name. I am not a fan of the “F” word, but it seems the youngest generation uses it with great frequency in our culture today.

KTVU CH 2 FOX Bay Area (FOX News) which is frequently cited as a top-rated news station in the San Francisco Bay Area, reported along with other news sources, the team is promising a $1 million fund for Coliseum workers impacted by its departure.

However, there have been reports from some workers who say they haven’t received assistance from this fund. reports indicate that some of the workers who expected to receive assistance from this fund were denied, leading to disappointment and anger among some former employees.

The A’s stated that the fund was created to provide meaningful support during the transition for the team leaving town. There is nothing like stiffing people that work very hard by the hour. In my world this is “immoral” some would call it “unethical”, dishonest, just pick one, they all fit very well..

The Oakland A’s relocated their entire broadcast operation this season, encompassing both radio and television, from Oakland to Sacramento, which included play-by-play announcers, commentators, producers, broadcast coordinators, directors, and other personnel.

However, they did not take their Spanish crew that they had for years in San Francisco, on station KIQI 1010AM, which also has a repeater station in Sacramento, 990AM. The Spanish crew consisted of three people. The only broadcast people that the A’s did not take to Sacramento were the Spanish broadcast crew. The team decided to “outsource “the Spanish to another station in Sacramento.

My friends at the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce note that over 560,000 residents in the greater Sacramento region (including El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties) identify as Hispanic.

Someone in the A’s organization never gave Mr. Fisher the memo that California is not like Maine or Vermont, where there are no Spanish speakers.  During the first of three years in Sacramento, the new digs have not been a great success for the ATH, selling just over 9,000 tickets per game, with approximately 20 home games left this season. Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento is a minor league park, with 14,000 capacity.

According to the website DIMERS, John Fisher is today the most hated owner in baseball.

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez – Cuban-born Pi-González is one of the pioneers of Spanish-language baseball play-by-play in America. Began as Oakland A’s Spanish-language voice in 1977 ending in 2024 (interrupted by stops with the Giants, Mariners and Angels). Voice of the Golden State Warriors from 1992 through 1998. 2010 inducted in the Bay Area Radio Hall of fame.

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⚡Craft cocktails? Check.
🔥Game-day bites? Oh yeah.
🏟️Steps from Golden 1 Center? You bet.

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